


Old Lovers

by orphan_account



Series: The Miscellaneous adventures of Sam Drake [4]
Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Post-Panama, Slice of Life, rebuilding life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-07 15:10:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20819372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Sam and the reader discuss their bad life decisions over a beer.





	Old Lovers

"Ah, it wasn't as bad as you make it out to be." He laughed.  
"Are you kidding? We're not allowed in Lebanon ever again!"  
"It was fun." He shrugged.  
"No. _Fun_ is having a beer or two and catching up with friends. Itis _not_ pissing off a government and all their drug lords."  
"It's not our fault that the asshole didn't know he was running a black market on top of a mountain of gold."  
"Which we didn't manage to get."  
"Hey, I never said it was perfect." The pair smiled at each other for a moment, the setting sun casting soft golden shadows over her face. _She was beautiful._

He opened the cooler beside him. "Beer?"  
"Sure." He passed it to her and she cracked it open. 

A moment of silence.

"It all feels like such a long time ago." She grinned. "I wish you had been here with me, before I retired."  
"You've _barely_ retired."  
"I smuggle. I don't get shot at." She pointed out. "And I teach."  
"Yeah, well, I made a few bad decisions." He shrugged. "No-one's fault."  
"I know a thing or two about bad decisions." Sam glanced over at her before turning his attention back to her garden.  
"Yeah? What kind?"  
"The normal kind. Men."  
"Ah." Even after all these years, apparently he couldn't stop loving her, and an inane sense of jealousy rose up with him - despite the fact that they were, after all, _bad_ decisions. "Like who?"  
"Oh, a few flings here and there. A couple of long-term relationships that didn't work out well. A reunion with an old college flame. An affair with a colleague who I didn't know was married." A look of guilt flashed across her features briefly.   
"Been there." He grinned. "I remember my first _real_ girlfriend. Crystal."  
She laughed. "What kind of name is that?"  
"I know, right? Ah, she was the teenage dream, though." He sipped his beer. "Tiny and blonde. She had these massive eyes, it was crazy."  
"Wonder what she's doing now."  
He snorted. "Probably a lawyer or a banker or something, with an equally blonde husband and a dog."  
"Picket fence, two kids, has the neighbours over every other Sunday."  
"Mmm." He agreed. "A holiday home by a lake a few hours away."  
"Her kid's going to college next year. He's going to Yale." She coined a suburbian American accent. Sam chuckled.  
"Yeah."   
She laughed. "Better than my first boyfriend."  
"Yeah?"   
"I was in university. Some guy, called Frank. He was decent, actually, but... boring."  
"Maybe's he's with Crystal."   
"No, he's teaching at Oxford. I got offered a job there, actually, and he wrote me a letter of recommendation. I see him sometimes at conferences and stuff."  
"Must be weird."  
"Not really. He's got a husband and three kids, so he's obviously moved on."

  
Sam wished he could say the same about himself. _Move on, old man. You're a relic of her past, nothing more._

"But not all of my boyfriends were terrible."  
"No?"  
"You were pretty good." Her expression was soft and full of unspoken words.

_God damn it._

"I was going to propose to you." He said it without thinking. "Before I went to prison. I wanted to propose after we had found the treasure and use the money to build a life with you."

At first, he felt terrified to look over and see what could only be an expression of discomfort - but a cursory glance told him that she had a small but shocked smile on her face.

"Really?"  
"Yeah."  
"I... I would've said yes."

Now it was Sam's turn to smile.

"That's good to know." 

Perhaps he was imagining it, but he could've sworn he felt her move a little closer to him on the bench.

"Makes you think what we could have had if..." Her smile died as she voiced her thoughts.  
"I don't want to think about it." He said curtly. A deep, familiar pain swelled up in his stomach. He _could've had_ an amazing, perfect and wife and he _could have_ seen his little brother grow up and settle down. He loved adventuring, sure - but it wasn't worth the time he'd lost. Now, luckily he had nothing left to-  
"Maybe we could still have that." Her melodic voice broke his thoughts. "I mean, we're different people now, but we've still got, what, forty or fifty years left?"

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. 

A second chance.


End file.
